With everyone running around dropping off letters to each other — President Mbeki to President Bush, Morgan Tsvangirai to Mbeki and the chairman of Benoni Brothels Inc to the government (Mrs Traps) — I slipped out without paying, apparently — I figured: Why not send one to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela? As the recipient of the most […]
Search results
Posted inGeneral
Irony that is music to my ears
Submitted by Dylan Edwards The news that Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday will be celebrated with a concert in Hyde Park would have been exciting news for many South Africans. Unfortunately, the Hyde Park in question is not the northern Johannesburg suburb; in fact, it’s in London. And the excited South Africans are not the 40-odd-million […]
Posted inGeneral
Renaissance dreams and discontent
Submitted by Chris Waldburger This month, South Africa ached for a leader. South Africa’s shoulder rubbed raw against the wheel of destiny; there was nobody to stand as a midwife for her so that she could bear the hopes and dreams of a continent. She shook with the fever of fear, hatred and criminal opportunism […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Delivered, bound hand and foot
In every province of human life, and in that of reporting truthfully principally so, we have a right to demand a living sympathy of mind with mind. It is clearly not only about getting the highest circulation in the media establishment; the press is charged to inform, to entertain, to enlighten and sometimes to swim […]
Posted inGeneral
Religious authoritarianism and social control
While reading Henry Giroux’s book, Against the New Authoritarianism (2005), I recalled Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), a riveting narrative of a post-nuclear war regression to a supposedly biblically founded Republic of Gilead in what is now the United States of America. This futuristic dystopia is hierarchically structured and ruthlessly authoritarian, with women and […]
Posted inGeneral
Is South Africa a “rogue democracy”?
Dear President Bush, What with all your known knowns, unknown knowns and unknown unknowns, we’re sure you’re absolutely overrun about now. We were however wondering if you could kindly email South Africa a copy of our president’s recent letter to you, apparently asking you to stay out of Africa, which he claims belongs to him. […]
Posted inNews/Politics
In the aftermath: Tasks for the South African Working class
The crisis is not over, despite official statements claiming it to be so. What the army has done was to drive the attacks underground, resulting in war parties of five to seven thugs combing through settlements, picking foreign nationals out one by one. No system of community policing can be successful without the concerted co-operation […]
Posted inNews/Politics
I’m forced to be foreign — ranting and raving…
Submitted by Cynthia Ayeza Mutabaazi Most of us have by now read a lot about the current xenophobic attacks on “foreign” people/non-South Africans in South Africa. We have read about it in the papers, seen it on television, heard it on radio and the internet continues to carry the story across the globe. I do […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The big question
The big question coming out of all the centres of refuge for “foreigners” displaced by xenophobic violence in and around police stations, civic centres and churches is where do we go from here? What plans are on the table to protect, sustain and eventually reintegrate into the community some 30 000 (and growing) displaced people, […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Is Mugabe trying to manipulate the Zimbabwean xenophobia victims?
While it is currently only a rumour, not an unusual occurence in the life of criminal attorneys, there appears to be an attempt by Robert Mugabe to bring home as many exiles as he can, to settle them on land that he has made available for them, and then utilise their votes for the presidential […]
Posted inGeneral
Perfect state or police state?
One of the things that has been hard for me to get used to about living in the US is the feeling of being policed at every turn. Here, my life is filled with a multitude of rules and regulations, along with a strong presence of law enforcement officials to make sure that I follow […]
Posted inGeneral
Friends that ring – Chatting with Neal Fullman, PR Director of fring
If you haven’t heard of fring, you’re probably a tad behind the mobile IM / VoIP wave. I discovered it a while back, looking for an application that worked on an S60 phone and enabled me to communicate with all my MSN, Skype and Google Talk contacts. If it did Twitter as well, bonus. It […]